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Labor lobbyists are rushing to kill a provision in a House bill that would make it more difficult for aviation and railroad workers to unionize. As states, foremost among them Wisconsin, debate and implement legislation limiting unions, the provision is the only such proposal pending in Congress.

 It’s part of the House’s Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill, and it would throw out a ruling last year by the National Mediation Board (which mediates labor disputes in the aviation and railroad industries) which made it easier for unions to organize. The ruling nullified a regulation the board itself had created 75 years ago, which stated that workers who don’t cast a ballot in a union election are counted as votes against unionizing.

Unions in no other industry face such a requirement, so there was a policy reason for the board to overturn its own rule. But there was also a political reason: The board’s membership changed after President Obama appointed some new members to the board.

Unions see this as a critical issue. “Currently, this is the biggest issue federally right now in terms of organizing rights. There is nothing else that is on the table,” Shane Larson, legislative director for the Communications Workers of America, told the Huffington Post.

Even some Republicans in the House favor the union side and oppose attempts to reinstate the 75-year-old transportation union rule. In February, an amendment to stop the bill that was introduced by Democrat Jerry Costello of Illinois in the House Committee on Transportation garnered the votes of three Republicans (but failed anyway).

One of them was Congresswoman Candice Miller of Michigan, who formerly served as Secretary of State in her home state. She said during the committee: “Each of us who has the honor to serve in the House … all we have to do to win this privilege is receive more votes than our opponent. That is the fundamental caveat of our democracy, and how we conduct elections. Why should a union election be any different?”

Relations between the federal government and transportation unions can have historic consequences: Witness President Ronald Reagan’s firing of more than 11,300 striking federal air traffic controllers in 1981, a watershed moment cited by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in a recent recorded conversation with a liberal blogger impersonating billionaire David Koch.

“To me, that moment was more important than just for labor relations or even the federal budget; that was the first crack in the Berlin Wall and the fall of Communism,” Walker said.

There are two versions of the FAA reauthorization bill, one by Republicans that would reinstate the old rule for transportation workers and one by Democrats that would not. Unions are pressuring Senate Democrats to hold out against the rule change when they meet with House Republicans to create a compromise version of the bill.

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